Technical Field
The present invention relates to a battery monitoring apparatus including monitoring integrated circuits (ICs) for monitoring a high-voltage battery formed of a plurality of cells.
Related Art
A known battery monitoring apparatus, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-70179, includes monitoring ICs for monitoring and adjusting the capacity of each of a plurality of cells forming a high-voltage battery, where the monitoring ICs are supplied with power from the high-voltage battery.
The apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-70179 is configured such that the monitoring ICs are always supplied with power from the high-voltage battery, which leads to increased power consumption for the high-voltage battery to drive the cells. The power consumption varies with the monitoring ICs of the high-voltage battery, which will cause variations in capacity with the cells. Control with use of the high-voltage battery is tailored to one of the cells having a minimum capacity, which may prevent the high-voltage battery from delivering its inherent performance in the presence of variations in capacity with the cells.
In consideration of the foregoing, it would therefore be desirable to have a battery monitoring apparatus capable of reducing the high-voltage battery power consumption of monitoring ICs of the apparatus.